American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

“Don’t try to fight too much, some people really like to fight, but go is a peaceful game,” Ryo Maeda 6P said in his lecture on Friday at the U.S. Go Congress. Due to popular demand, a fifth lecture was added — four were originally scheduled — and Maeda picked up where he left off on Thursday with techniques for attaching to the 4-4 point. “The simpler you play, the less mistakes you make, and your chances (of winning) increase — simple is better,” he said.  When faced with an invasion from your opponent, he doesn’t recommend “trying to kill”, because “once they live in your territory, your loss is so large — let them live small instead.”  But “you always want to punish someone who overplays.”  One way to do that is to exploit the weakness of a group with only two liberties. “Two liberties is more dangerous than you think,” Maeda said.  A group with two liberties “makes normal moves for nearby groups dangerous.”  He demonstrated several examples and joked that “if you do this against a 5D player, they cry.”  Translator Yoshi Sawada 6D pointed out several times that Maeda used English phrases: “see he speaks English — very soon I will be out of a job,” he joked.  Not only was it a bonus lecture, but it also went on for more than an hour and a half, and Maeda looked ready to keep on going, but — like the Congress itself — all good things must eventually come to an end. Fortunately, there’s always next year.
- Report/photos by Jake Edge

UNDEFEATED: U.S OPEN 4-0 WINNERS: With two rounds to go, the following players are undefeated thus far in the U.S. Open: Terry Benson, Tucker Burgin, Gordon Castanza, William Gundberg, Albert Guo, Albert Hu, Colin Liu, David Niu, Jesse O’brion, Joel Olson, Jeff Putney, Larry Russ, Roger Schrag, Andrew Shang, Daniel Smith, Myron Souris, Darrell Speck, Myung Wan Kim, April Ye, Peter Zhang. Click here for complete standings/results in the U.S. Open through Round 4.
PHILLIPS & FRANKEL DOMINATING SELF-PAIRED: William Phillips and David Frankel together are leading in four of the Self-Paired tourney events. Phillips is still leading for The Champion, increasing his net wins to 9; Frankel and Phillips are currently tied for The Hurricane, with 10 wins each; Frankel has a firm grip on The Giant Killer (Dan Killer) with 8 wins against dan-level players, while Jeffrey Horn’s 4 wins against kyus is holding onto The Keith Arnold (Kyu Killer); The Straight Shooter: Frankel and Phillips both have 5 consecutive wins; Gordon Castanza’s 17 games gives him a good lead on The Dedicated, while Wayne Nelson’s 10 games against weaker players has him in the lead for The Teacher and he’s also leading for The Philanthropist.
NOTE: Watch for a Pair Go report and photo album on the website Friday!

The E-Journal’s complete Congress tournament coverage online includes the US Open crosstab and results, including game records, the North American Ing crosstab and results (also including game records) as well as Redmond Cup game records and commented US Open and Ing games: Round 1 – Myung Wan Kim (w) vs Tianyu (Bill) Lin (b), commented by Jennie Shen 2P; Round 2 – Curtis Tang (w) vs Eric Lui (b), commented by Maeda Ryo 6P and Round 4 – Eric Lui (w) vs Myung Wan Kim (b), commented by Cheng Xiaoliu 6P. Also included is a photo album of all 32 Ing players.
- photo by Chris Garlock

An alternative to making an invasion at the 3-3 point — the subject of Tuesday’s lecture — is the attachment to the 4-4 stone, which was the topic for Thursday’s U.S. Go Congress lecture by Ryo Maeda 6P (r).  He started out by sheepishly admitting that he had made an attachment to a 4-4 stone in a simul on Tuesday and the stone got killed.  Maeda went on to demonstrate various positions where the attachment works, and how to use it effectively.  The positions all had black on the 4-4 and side star point, with a black stone in between, either a one-point jump from the 4-4 on the fourth line or the knight’s move on the third.  In those cases, white can attach in line with the black stones and black will hane.  The inside hane is “peaceful”, as black is trying to preserve the corner.  In that case, white should just extend unless there are black stones near the star point in that direction.  “You can’t make six points there (for eyespace), so you have to do something else,” he said.  If you can’t do the normal extension, you must make a diagonal move to the 3-2 point.  “If you have less than six points, you must work on two eyes,” Maeda said, and diagonal moves have more eye potential than straight extensions.  He showed how to use the four formations for capturing third line stones from Sunday’s lecture, and noted that invading is fairly risk-free, “as long as black answers, it costs nothing — good things may happen.”  There were several positions that required sacrificing stones and it is important to recognize those, because if “you don’t want to sacrifice three stones, then you may lose the whole thing.”  When a stone or group is captured, “you start fighting nearby — you may be able to live.”  He also pointed out that if there are a lot of black stones on the outside that loosely surround the corner, it may be better to invade at the 3-3 point, rather than attach, which is the mistake he made in the simul. In answer to audience questions, he also talked about the endgame.  Once you start the endgame, “the second line is the most important line in the game,” Maeda said.  That prompted a question about when to start the endgame, which Maeda said was an “easy question.”  One of the principles of the “Maeda method” is “when you have a weak stone, protect it,” so don’t start the endgame until every group is protected.  Then either try to kill your opponent’s weak groups or invade.  Once those opportunities are gone, you can start the endgame.  Maeda and translator Yoshi Sawada 6D (l in photo) will continue looking at 4-4 attachments in a bonus fifth round of the lecture series on Friday afternoon.
- report/photo by Jake Edge

Born into the famous Matsuoka go family, the pressure on Shigeko Hane 1P (r) to succeed as a professional from an early age – she learned when she was 6 years old – was intense. “Winning was the #1 priority,” Hane told the E-Journal in an interview Sunday afternoon in the E-Journal office at the U.S. Go Congress. Now, as the wife of former Kisei, Honinbo and Tengen title holder Naoki Hane 9P and mother of four — Ranka 1k, Rinka 4k, Ayaka 1k and 3-year-old Kazuya, of whom great things are also expected – she says she just wants “to enjoy the game.” As a go teacher at an elementary school in Aichi Prefecture, she says she emphasizes the “positive aspects” of their play to encourage them. “Mental toughness is very important to getting stronger,” she says, “all the top professionals absolutely hated to lose as kids. Many of them are famous for breaking down in tears after losses as young players.” While a person’s true temperament can be difficult to determine in real life “it comes out right away in go,” Hane says, “go reveals your real character immediately. Husband Naoki Hane 9P, for example, is calm and steady, like his father Yasumasa Hane 9P – who she accompanied to the Go Congress – and when he came home after winning the Honinbo in 2008 and 2009, “he was the same as always, not jumping up and down, eating the same meals.” And when he lost the title this year, “he was just the same. So I think he really enjoys go for what it is, instead of worrying about winning and losing.” Hane says she’s been “really impressed with how many players at the Congress are recording their games; in Japan very few people do this.” She was also startled that the roomful of hundreds of players at the U.S. Open was “so quiet I could hear the whirr of my video recorder; in Japan tournaments are much noisier.” One way she judges how effective lectures are is by the audience participation, and she noted that at the Congress, “everyone’s really engaged. You must be doing everything right.”
- report by Chris Garlock: photos: Shigeko Hane 1P watching her daughter Ayaka play in the U.S. Open (upper right, by Garlock); Yasumasa Hane 9P, Shigeko Hane 1P, translator Yoshi Sawada (l) and E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock (r) (left, by Todd Heidenreich)